digital privacy
Device fingerprinting
Identifying you by your device's unique combination of settings and characteristics — no cookies required.
Device fingerprinting identifies you by the unique combination of characteristics your browser and device expose — screen size, fonts, time zone, hardware quirks — no cookies required. Clearing cookies or using private mode does not defeat it.
It is the tracking industry's answer to cookie blockers, and it works disturbingly well: a handful of attributes usually suffices to single out one device among millions. Dumbphones sidestep the problem bluntly — with no usable browser, there is nothing to fingerprint. Your web life happens on your laptop, where defenses are stronger and usage is deliberate.